Stardock's Brad Wardell has balls

[Kingston]

A lot of people will go and say, "Oh, what about Crysis," as if there was some universe where Crysis was going to sell four million copies on the PC if it only weren't for piracy.

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=994

The man makes some sense.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

We must coerce this sexy beast of a man to post on the Codex.

 

[DiverNB]

He has a lot of valid points.

 

[SuicideBunny]

hm, i do get the urge to buy sins of a solar empire, even though it's not my kind of game... DAMN YOU WARDELL!

 

[Solohk]

You could always pick up GalCiv 2 if you're more of a turn based 4x fan. It's a great game by the way.

 

[Helton]

We at the Codex are big fans of big balls.

 

[Carrie Underwood]

We at the Codex are big fans of big balls.

Yes.

It's time for me to buy... Sins of a Solar Empire!

+1 Support

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Come back tomorrow for part two of the interview, in which Wardell and I discuss Stardock and Gas Powered Games' upcoming title Demigod, as well as his company's mysterious 4X fantasy title.

I've being waiting for news on this for a loooong time. The spiritual successor to Master of Magic I hope.

 

[Seboss]

Remember Sins of a Solar Empire was not actually developed by Stardock.

 

[Seboss]

I've being waiting for news on this for a loooong time. The spiritual successor to Master of Magic I hope.

You should really give a shot to the Fall From Heaven II mod for Civilization IV, or Dominions 3.

 

[Kos_Koa]

Fall From Heaven 2 is great. Definitely more fun than basic Civ4 + expansions. I recommend it.

So I keep hearing mixed reviews on Sins, is it worth getting? How's single-player?

 

[Ashery]

Fall From Heaven 2 is great. Definitely more fun than basic Civ4 + expansions. I recommend it.

So I keep hearing mixed reviews on Sins, is it worth getting? How's single-player?

In a word..."Meh."

It's been six months since my brief experience with the game, but I don't remember the game being anything special...I think I played it for a couple days or so before giving up on it. Though I do remember those end game weapons being absurdly overpowered.

Then again, I haven't been able to enjoy most rts's since I picked up Kohan several years back.

 

[J1M]

Sins is real-time. That is the flaw. Interesting things happen way too slowly or when you aren't looking.

 

[Destroid]

Does anyone else find it funny that one game they are working on is a DotA clone and the other sounds like a MoM clone? part 2 of that interview is up now.

 

[udm]

A lot of people will go and say, "Oh, what about Crysis," as if there was some universe where Crysis was going to sell four million copies on the PC if it only weren't for piracy.

That's totally awesome. Way to take on an industry giant! *salute*

Great interview all around.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Ahhh... They made them deliberately vague. Interesting.

Remember the old business plan argument that, if I can get 1% of such-and-such market I'm doing great?

Actually that's a load of bunk that you'll find out a lot of Venture Capitalists hate if you mention it but anyhoo...

 

[DraQ]

So, how good is this Sins game? More specifically, how good is it's SP?

To outline my preferences:

As your typical SF geek, I loved Homeworld (the feel, atmosphere and gameplay), Nexus (style of early human ships, pretending to be newtonian, tactical combt and general atmosphere) and Frontier (physics and scale). I didn't really like Haegemonia, because apart from epic GFX it had little to offer.

 

[J1M]

Ahhh... They made them deliberately vague. Interesting.

Remember the old business plan argument that, if I can get 1% of such-and-such market I'm doing great?

Actually that's a load of bunk that you'll find out a lot of Venture Capitalists hate if you mention it but anyhoo...

But as I'm sure you know, venture capitalists are one of the worst sources of funding.

 

[treave]

He actually sounds ethical.

 

[lefthandblack]

So, how good is this Sins game? More specifically, how good is it's SP?

It's good. The much-touted 4x elements leave alot to be desired, but it's a solid space RTS.
If you like the prospect of huge capital-fleet battles you won't be disappointed.

Pros:
- great graphics and sound (fleet battles are awesome)
- research based tech progression
- huge random map setups allowing LONG games, this is a good thing IMO, but if it's not your cup of tea, there are small, medium and large setups too.
- capital ships level-up to become more powerful
- excellent AI, the bastards are sneaky and WILL hit you hard if you leave yourself open

Cons:
- No campaign
- 4x diplomacy system sucks (IMO, it's better to just turn it off)
- no resource/tech trading (there is a black market to buy resources, but not techs)
- If you like to turtle, forget it. Static defenses are weak and limited.
- Race superweapons are "meh."

 

[DraQ]

How does space feel like?
Is it space-y, or do we get colorful fluorescent semen filling the background and tutti-frutti nebulae and fog in front again?


Also, what is the look and feel of the vessels?

 

[NiM82]

So, how good is this Sins game?

Sins is ok, but it's not really much better than say Haegamonia. Sword of the Stars (fully patched with the addon) is a lot better game imo, it's got turn based strategy and real time tactical, plus a lot more depth (you do need to read the manual). It's also optimised for multiplayer (which can be great fun). I got them both off impulse the other week, but have put Sins on ice for now.

Space in Sins is like HW, big colourful nebula, etc. The ship designs (what I've seen) is pretty average, HW style stuff. If your after "realism" SoTS has pitch black space and Newtonian manoeuvring (albeit only on a 2D plane, ships have to decelerate etc) as well as proper fire arcs for weapons., with distant nebula and stuff sourced from Hubble imagery.

 

[lefthandblack]

There are different backgrounds (skyboxes) that are full of nebulae, while perhaps not realistic, IMO they look great and don't affect gameplay at all.
There are planets, gas planets, asteroids, wormholes, magnetic storms (nebula) and a star in each system (huge maps can have five or more systems). Asteroids and planets can be colonized and these serve as your "bases". Every one of the aforementioned bodies is connected by a "phase lane", the only way to travel between points is through the phase lanes. This makes it important to find choke-points to keep the enemy out of your space.

The ship designs are unique for each race:

TEC (human) are big and blocky, think BSG.
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/20 ... een004.jpg
The TEC focuses on ballistic weapons.

Vasari (alien) look alot like Babylon V stuff.
http://sins.stardock.com/images/screens ... 3_1280.jpg
The Vasari focus on disintegration weapons.

Advent (mutant human)
http://www.facts-games.net/images2/sins/sins6.jpg

Each ship has a unique role to play which makes a balanced fleet very important, a balanced fleet is more effective and has a higher chance of success than simply building 50 of type X.
The Advent focus on beam weapons.

 

[Kingston]

Multiplayer is a lot of fun. When it builds up to an epic crescendo where every player is fighting on the same system you'll be giddy.